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Social Media

Presentation
Donnie Laur

Friday, October 30, 2009 1


But, first...
A few “social” questions.

Do you find yourself comfortable with social media websites?

How often do you regularly use them?

Reasons that you do not use them that often?

Any concerns about SNS (Social Networking Sites)?

Do you feel that walk through hands-on training would help?

What do you want out of social media for your


School, Department, College?

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what is social media?
• Definitions vary. But, they focus on user
participation using user-generated content.
Connecting, sharing, user interaction.

• Social interaction that transform brodcast


media (one to many) into social media
dialogues (many to many). * Wikipedia.

• Examples? facebook, Linked In, Del.icio.us,


Digg, Reddit, Wikipedia, blogs, myspace,
blogs, Twitter (micro-blog), Flickr, youtube

• Sharing and talking with each other.

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What Social Media is Best Used for?
• Connecting and interacting with people that you would not
normally reach. Build social relationships and allow people to
decide how much they would like to connect or interact with you.
Rather than driving people to a website, just show up where the
people are.

• Rather than building a new way to connect, use the technology and
hot website of the time. Bind yourself to connecting and ideas and
if the technology shifts, so will the people that you connected with.

• Keeping people up to date. Get bytes of news a little bit at a time,


rather than a newsletter or a large update. Newsletters and
homecoming still has its place but those that only check in from
time to time, social media a perfect resource.

• Media Assets Toolbox. Your photos, videos, news, all in one place
or every place. Rather than host off a server and struggle to get
people to the page, just place it on social media websites, usually
free, that forward or suggest people to you. These sites have great
search features, very large search engine results and people are
already there using it.

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Why Universities are quick to adopt social media.

• Audience is already there.


• Ease of Use.
• Creativity.
• Inevitability: We are already a part of
it. Students and alumni are already a
part of it as well.
• However, it is often without a plan or
policies. We have a social media site,
now what?

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How universities are engaging alumni using social media

• Helping alumni find jobs: LinkedIn


and Twitter.
• Collaboration and connecting with
students using facebook and twitter.
• Meeting alumni where they are at.
• Alumni generated content.
• Mini Mobile Reunions. Connecting
your fans to each other.

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a few ways to use social
media now
 * Sharing University news
 * Let others know about events
 * Promoting student activities and achievements
 * Recruiting students for photo shoots for 
promotional material
 * Notifying students and staff if ever there were an 
emergency

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I don’t understand this
social media stuff
• It is similar to a cocktail party, but without constraints of time and
space.

• Meet people and start conversation

• Listen and answer questions.

• Ask questions, trust other’s advice.

• Add value to the community.

• It is about the conversation, not the technology. For more on that


read Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social
technologies by Forrester Research Group.

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Trendy, but here to stay

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facebook nation

if facebook was a country?


People’s Republic of China - 1.3B
India - 1.17B
United States - 307.8M
Facebook Nation - 300M - Nov 09
Indonesia - 229M

Countries by Population numbers based on July 1, 2009 estimate


Via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

facebook numbers are estimated... but they are growing by 750K users a day.

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But, are people using it?
More than 300 million active users

50% of active users log to facebook in any given day

The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older (alumni?
parents of high school students?)

More than 2 billion photos uploaded each month.

More than 5 billion minutes are spent of facebook each day (worldwide)

More than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts,
notes, photos, etc.) shared each week.

More than 3 million events created each month.

More than 65 million active users currently accessing facebook through their
mobile devices. Those that use mobile devices on facebook are almost 50%
more active on facebook than non-mobile users.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

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Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  
Radio (38 Years), 
TV (13 Years), 
Internet (4 Years), 
iPod (3 Years)
…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months
…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.

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What about higher education?
listed as number of fans subscribed to facebook “page”

The Most Fans


Texas A&M - 145, 601
LSU - 123,112 Illinois
U of Oklahoma - 64,824 Univ of Illinois - 13,589
Kansas - 60,379 Northwestern - 7,964
Mizzou - 56,893 SIU Carbondale - 7,081
NIU - 5,934
Western - 5,511
ISU - 4,726
Eastern - 4,116
as of Oct Southern Edwardsville -
2009 3,719
Bradley - 2,322

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Dept or College Pages @ SIUC

SIUC MCMA - 1032 fans


SIU Aviation - 352 fans
WSIU Public Radio - 288 fans
Saluki First Year - 276 fans
WSIU Raising Readers - 181 fans
SIUC Writing Center - 204 fans
SIU School of Journalism - 124 fans
SIU Alumni Assoc - 95 fans
SIUC Housing - 95 fans
Undergraduate Admissions - 92 fans
WSIU Public Television - 90 fans
SIUC Student Center - 72 fans

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SIUC MCMA facebook page
facebook.com/siucmcma

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What MCMA does
I used a user account, mcma web, as the
MCMA Webmaster, to find users.

If people want to add mcma web as a friend,


I suggest them to “fan” the SIUC MCMA Page.
Page found at http://facebook.com/siucmcma/

Why the siucmcma name?


Branding, searching, visual display, quick to type

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SIUC MCMA

No matter the Real Name, any admin who posts on a


“Page”, the Page name gets credited.

logged in as

gets posted as

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Not bad
Not bad for only web invites. As to date, other
than a link on the MCMA website, to my
knowledge we have not made any effort to use
any other media to promote the Fan Page.

No newspaper, direct mailing or direct


emailing, no mention in brochures, alumni
newsletters, just digital word of mouth.
With a bit more effort, we can improve.

What do we want to do moving forward?

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users account and facebook a pages
Why a facebook page and a normal user account?

Normal user accounts are for real people and facebook can
and will remove users who are not real people.

Reggie the Redbird - ISU Mascot


Over 3,200 friends

Pulled from facebook Nov 2008.


Lost access to all friends, photos, and comments.

Pulled profile resulted in people asking why


Reggie just de-friended me.

No way to contact people and let them know.

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SIUC Example
anything stand out?
any guesses why?

homecoming?

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Long names are not nearly as
readable, searchable, or usable.

A short two word name, looks more like a person’s name.

It allows you to brand it


and use it elsewhere.
facebook usernames
can not be changed!
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OK, why Pages and not Groups?

Insights!
Favorite Pages and connect a community

Shortened username

Posts can come from any admin but look like


it is coming from one person.

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facebook “Page” Insights
Insights can show several interesting things
including fan interaction over time, user
demographics, breakdowns by
age and/or sex, by country, media
consumption (audio, photo, video plays),

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facebook user layout

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facebook Fan Page layout

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facebook page features
• Wall. Turn off filter for more
interaction.

• Notes. Import via RSS.


• Favorite Pages
• Events
• Links
• Photos and Videos

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The Old ROI

Measure Return on
Investment

OLD ROI =
(Gain - Cost) / Cost of Investment

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The New ROI
Return On Interaction
Recurring Online Interaction
Who interacts with your org and how often?

What do they think of you?

Are you connected to them?

Are they talking about you to others?

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• It is no longer about sending a message out, it is about
the conversation.

• Good interaction leads to good feedback, good word of


mouth. It isn’t about what you tells others, it is what
they are saying about you.

• You are putting a face to a ORG or name. People trust


people. While using social media, when possible, add
your name or personal comments. TGI used Woody
and the promise of a free burger, to build fan base.
The fact that it is a person, although, not real, makes
it more personable. Think Gus Bode!

• People prefer to know who they are communicating


with, which is why social media is so heavily used,
talking to someone without identification seems
impersonal.

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Using Time Wisely
• Setup automatic tasks. Automatically pull from other
social media applications or RSS feeds. Facebook ->
Twitter or Flickr - > Facebook. Pull newly uploaded
youtube videos directly to facebook.

• Automatic feeds allow for one entry to be posted


everywhere.

• WARNING - This has to be balanced. Too much PR


(too frequently) or only news stories (ratio of
automatic posts to personalized entries) can turn off
people and even get you negative response. You are
wanting to keep people up to date and engage them,
not annoy them.

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Encourage Interaction
• Ask open questions that solicit a response. (These can usually be measured). Such as,
what project are you working on? Open questions like this will usually get a positive
response from alumni or students.

• Highlight achievements or good news. This will usually result in a digital pat on the back
or digital hi-five. “Way to Go”, “Congrats”. When people offer interaction, it posts on the
Page and also on their home and others can see it. You might then be suggested as a
friend or a page to them without any direction interaction with them.

• Updates that receive a lot of interaction are often highlights (such as the facebook
homepage sidebar).

• Post media content such as photos, videos, links, and even events. These all encourage
interaction and often someone else will share your link with others. People love to look at
photos and video content and comment or “like” and item.

• Even if it might not relate to the page or account, you can often get good feedback and
interaction by talking about news or events. If you see something interesting and
relevant, let others know. If you only talk about yourself, it isn’t very fun for someone to
be your friend in a social network. Therefore, pass on other stories, links, or events from
the community or field of study.

• Be a good “friend”. Share and comment on updates that others have made. If using
Twitter, Retweet others Tweets.

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Use Multimedia
Share and tag videos, photos, notes, updates, etc. Multimedia often
generates the most response from fans. If possible, try to post
multimedia from events such as ceremonies, gatherings, and
meetings.

Put them in as many places as you can.


facebook
This is often appreciated by people who can not be at an event or
those would just want to be kept in the loop as to what is goin’ on.

flickr
youtube EDU

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CrowdSource with a student contest
Have a student contest. Provide guidelines and if possible provide stock photos or
videos and the message that you want conveyed. Offer a prize reward.

Have public judging that allows for feedback and comments.

Something can be as simple as a video contest that people have to upload the
video to Youtube and include “Why I like Southern IL University”.

From there people will comment, view, and rate. The videos can be used as
promotional materials and as a means to direct people to your social media
websites.

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Pay for promotion
facebook has social media ads that that target audiences
and demographics, say students ages 14-17 in the Chicago
area who are interested in Radio, Television, Journalism,
or Photography.

You can pay per click or per impression. SIUC MCMA


used facebook advertising to target students in Chicago
for our recent MCMA Chicago Expo.

Google’s advertising system also works well. Compare


that method to say billboards or newspaper ads in an
area.

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Add facebook Events to Pages

Each event can have its own wall,


discussion board, photos/video, or
conversation. Even if you are not
able to add multimedia for an event,
another user might.

Ask others for content. Parents, friends, and


other family take hundreds of photos and video
of events like graduation. Ask on your social
media networks for this media.

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TELL YOUR FRIENDS
This seems common sense but many highered
colleges or departments have areas on social media
networks but do not have a link on the main .edu
website. They don’t send emails letting people
know about it. No flyers in the hallway. No
mention in alumni newsletter, no talk about it on
alumni visits.

Usually the thinking here is


that lets start a big user base
then tell others about it. Let
them know, build it, then go
from there.

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Be Social Together
Universities should have a Social Media Working Group that
meets regularly. Best practices and how different social
media websites work, change very often.

This group can create social media best practices using


templates from others.

They can also create social media policies.

Help out new departments or groups that know that they need
to do this, but are not sure what to do, or how to do it.

Working together helps to make sure that the voice and


message is consistent.

When changes and shifts in social media come, working


together helps to let everyone know about new technologies
and functionalities.

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* Example
DePaul Social Media Guidelines
1.) Respect others. Sexist, racist and other discriminatory comments or
images will be removed immediately. Users are free to discuss topics and
disagree with another, but please be respectful of others' opinions.

2.) Keep it clean. Do not post offensive, obscene or sexually explicit


language or photos -such posts will be removed immediately.

3.) Keep your contact information personal. For your own safety and
security, please refrain from posting personal contact information (home
phone numbers, mailing addresses, personal email addresses, etc.) on the
LinkedIn community boards, on the Facebook wall and in blog comments.

4.) Don't spam. We encourage you to use the space as a platform to share
information about your work and achievements. However, commercial
advertisements, solicitations and promotions are not allowed.

5.) Stay on topic. We encourage open discussion among alumni; however,


postings that are deemed irrelevant to the DePaul alumni community may
be removed at our discretion.

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* Example
Colorado State SM Policy
* Use good judgment about content and respect privacy laws. Do not to include confidential
information about the University, its staff, or its students.

* You may post any content that is not threatening, obscene, a violation of intellectual property
rights or privacy laws, or otherwise injurious or illegal.

* Representation of your personal opinions as being endorsed by the University or any of its
organizations is strictly prohibited. You may not use the CSU name to promote any opinion, product,
cause, or political candidate. Be sure to include the statement: "this is my personal opinion and not
necessarily that of the University" when necessary.

* By posting content to any social media site, you agree that you own or otherwise control all of
the rights to that content, that your use of the content is protected fair use, that you will not
knowingly provide misleading or false information, and that you indemnify and hold the University
harmless for any claims resulting from the content.

* While CSU does not regularly review content posted to social media sites, it shall have the right
to remove any content for any reason, including but not limited to, content that it deems

threatening, obscene, a violation of intellectual property rights or privacy laws, or otherwise


injurious or illegal.

* When using or posting online material that includes direct or paraphrased quotes, thoughts,
ideas, photos, or videos, always include citations. Provide a link to the original material if
applicable.

* Refrain from using information and conducting activities that may violate local, state, or federal
laws, and regulations.

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SIUC MCMA SM Working Policy
• Every connection and interaction is important. Speak with alumni, students (future and
current) and interested community members as they connect with you and ask a question.

• Try to speak as a person would, when possible. However, remember that you are speaking
as an representative of the University and you are held to higher standards.

• Use your common sense. While you want to speak like a person, you don’t want to be too
personal. Don’t get private, no reason to.

• Shy away from commenting those posts or comments that use bad language or judgement.
Even if you agree.

• If a student or alumni win an award or accomplishment and we run a story about it, post
that story to their SM wall or account.

• Be a good friend by posting others news and links to your wall and click the like or rate link
if others have good news.

• Don’t overdo it. Spread out posts and comments. If you are doing too much, take a break.
However, don’t look overly inactive.

• Don’t be an idiot or do anything stupid!

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Seven Mass Media
• Print
• Audio Recordings
• Cinema
• Radio
• TV
• Internet
• Mobile
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The eight mass media?

YOU.
* Already won the
person of the year.

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WE are the distribution,
WE are the content,
WE are the ‘user journey’,
WE are how messages are transmitted.

WE are the medium and the media carried


by it

We are the connections and how the


connections are made.

Marketing isn’t done to them,


it is done by them.
8th media idea by Brando-Digital http://www.brandosocial.com/

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The Twitterverse
Where can you “tweet” from?

• of course, twitter.com
• via txt message. Simply txt to 40404.
• Tweets can be sent automatically from
a blog or RSS service using
twitterfeed.com

• Third-party software like tweetdeck.

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TweetDeck Software

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Twitter Basics

• 140 character status updates, called


Tweets.
• Follow others and be followed.
• Conversations via @siucmcma
• Trends using #hashtag

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Benefits of Twitter

• Alert followers to events, news,


deadlines, etc.

• Establish relationships

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Twitter Potential
Audiences
• Current Students
• Prospective Students
• Alumni
• Media
• General Public

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What to Tweet About
• An observation - Tweet about what you are doing.

• What you’re reading or watching

• Events. If at a popular event, you might post a #hashtag

• Promote your content.

• Promote someone else’s content

• Chat with someone by sending a message with the @ sign before the
username.

• Retweet what others have said. RT @siuc Retweeted Message.

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Best use of Twitter at SIUC

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What else are we doing?
• Youtube - MCMA has both an SIUC MCMA
youtube College channel and Don Laur
manages the SIU Youtube Edu channel.
http://youtube.com/siucmcma/
http://www.youtube.com/SIUC/

• Youtube EDU allows 1 hour videos, much


better than the standard 10 minutes on
normal accounts. In terms of social media,
users can follow and subscribe to others,
comment on videos, rate, etc.

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Flickr

• We have a basic Flickr.com account.


For a small fee we can upgrade to a
full flickr account and start a photo
group for photography. In this group
we can target students, alumni, and
faculty to display work.

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LinkedIn

• Professional network. We have an


MCMA group. Now LinkedIn has
subgroups so we can add subgroups
under the College group.
• Useful for professional connections,
job searches, alumni interaction.

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Moving Forward

What can be improve on?

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University Blogging

Use students to build brand impression.

Some University pay students for monthly


blog entries. Usually journalism or creative writing
students but they could be of any major.

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Student Bloggers
• University student blogs show an insight into student life.

• Blogs use students to create brand impressions.

• Word of mouth has become Word of Mouse.

• Student stories are a key marketing and recruitment element,


blogs, videos, social networks.

• American colleges have been out-blogging the business world. In


2008 Colleges and Universities were blogging 41% while Fortune
500 Companies were only blogging at a rate of 13%.

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Student bloggers tell stories of student life
not given by official university websites.

Expand your reach with international


blogging and student blogging in different
languages.

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Build a campus social
media working group
• One way we can improve is by building a campus social media
working group.

• Things change so fast, it helps to talk to others about changes and


keep all up to speed.

• Only strong as the weakest link. social media done wrong by others
at SIUC could affect our efforts.

• Set in place Best Practices and guidelines for existing and social
media efforts.

• Sharing. Connecting a local network of a campus community.

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Upgrade accounts

• Advanced paid LinkedIn accounts and


Flickr groups will allow more
flexibility and in the case of Flickr,
more storage.

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What else?
• Include links and announcement in flyers, posters, take home
materials.

• Direct mailing materials.

• Create new faculty, alumni, and student testimonials and profiles and
highlight them on social media networks.

• Get good news faster.

• Student video, idea, or writing contests. We have students already


winning contests for other companies.

• Use student groups and student ambassadors as bloggers.

• Podcast or video tape things such as tours, commencement, expos,


and everyday life.

• Use materials or resources we might already have.

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Have a Plan!

Create a college, department and school


social media policy.

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Thank You!

Donnie Laur
Digital Media Systems Specialist
College of Mass Communication and Media Arts
Southern Illinois University Carbondale

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